War On Tv

August 7, 1985

MOSCOW — Afghan rebels tortured 264 captured government soldiers with medieval instruments, then killed them and many residents of a village, a Soviet television report said Tuesday. Unusually detailed film lasting 20 minutes showed dismembered bodies in a ruined village. Reporter Mikhail Leshchinsky said rebels fighting the Moscow-backed regime brought the captured soldiers to the village which they had seized. When relief forces attacked, the rebels executed their captives and many villagers, Leshchinsky reported. The report did not make clear when all this occurred, but it went on to show Soviet soldiers guarding highways. The Soviet Union sent forces into Afghanistan in 1979.